Let's Play Ball!

It's official!

Softball/baseball season has begun at my school!

Now, I love softball and baseball both. I used to play softball in fifth grade or so. But then I stopped, and have scarcely picked up a glove since then. But this year- having heard that I need to get an athletic credit in order to graduate- I decided I had better do something. So I decided to manage our softball team, having kind of a flaky knee and much preferring management anyway. It started on Monday, and I love it! My responsibilities at the moment aren't that substantial. Basically, I do whatever the coach asks me to do, and I'm a gopher. I "go fer" bats, I "go fer" balls, etc. I do conditioning with the team and fill in when we're doing something with a partner and there is an odd number of actual players.

Now, what is conditioning, you may ask? It's a series of exercises designed to whip us all back into shape in the space of about three weeks. It's a pain- literally. I've been hurting very badly all week. To further describe it, we run for seven minutes around the gym, then stretch. Then we do lunges- 30 of them. Then we do a couple of different varieties of squats. Then we do pushups- first with our hands more than shoulder width apart, then with the hands turned in, then with hands shoulder width apart. And then we do my least favorite- crunches. 75 of them. It HURTS! But I'm sure starting to get back in shape for the first time in ages. Anyway, then we practice throwing, then usually do some pop flys and grounders, then practice hitting. Then we typically split off into groups- pitchers, catchers, and fielders and practice the respective techniques there. Then we finish off with either suicides or relays, or both. Suicides are when you run from one end of the basketball court to midcourt, then back again, then down to the other end, jump as high as you can five times, and then sprint back to the other end.

So that's our usual softball routine. I can't wait to get outside when the snow melts and the field dries off. There's something very different between practicing in a gym and practicing on the field. And I'm especially happy because a few of my friends are playing softball, and the other girls that I didn't know as well seem really nice. There's a lot of talent on the team. And a bunch of my guy friends are on the baseball team, which is nice since we may well be traveling together to some of our away games that are farther away.

That's the major occurence around here right now. We just finished up with our mink dissection in Bio, did a mock trial for a book we read in Lit, I rented one of my friends for Rent-A-Senior Day on April 1st, tomorrow is the Good Friday Five-Mile Walk, and Saturday is the last Quiz Bowl meet before the State Tournament. I'll write more about all of those as I get the time.

If I don't get back on Blogger before Sunday, everybody have an awesome Easter, and may God bless you all!

So- be well, do good works, and keep in touch.

Carolyn